​​FanDuel Parent Pins Betting Slowdown on Lackluster NFL Season

FanDuel parent Flutter Entertainment says a slowdown in betting activity toward the end of 2025 and early in 2026 can be chalked up to “poor football matchups” in the NFL season and playoffs.

For the year, the sports betting giant posted handle growth—or total dollars bet by customers—of 3%, which fell short of expectations, according to an earnings release. Flutter CEO Peter Jackson said during Thursday’s earnings call that the less-than-stellar handle growth can be attributed in part to a lackluster NFL season. The trend has continued early in the year because “fewer favorites” made the playoffs and “fewer player narratives” captured “the imagination of bettors,” according to Jackson. 

“Customers put their cues back in the rack and stopped betting because of poor football matchups,” he said.

Financially, Flutter reported $4.7 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025, up 25% from the same time period in 2024. For the year, it posted revenue of $16.4 billion, a 17% increase from 2024. Yet Flutter stock has fallen nearly 43% since the start of 2026 and more than 50% in the last six months.

Flutter is confident it can reclaim momentum. The company expects handle to improve with a number of major events in 2026, including March Madness and the World Cup. “Soccer is actually the fourth most popular sport for us,” Jackson said.

It’s also broadening how users can engage with its products. The late-December launch of its prediction-market platform, FanDuel Predicts, offers sports event contracts in 18 states, including major states where traditional sports betting is not legal, like California, Texas, and Florida. Jackson said early engagement has been encouraging, with most activity focused on sports. 

The company intends to “improve the breadth and quality” of FanDuel Predicts over the course of this year.

Despite headwinds, Jackson said FanDuel is confident moving forward, with plans to leverage its sportsbook pricing system for its prediction-market platform and invest in market-making capabilities.

Many questions were asked about prediction markets, but Jackson and CFO Rob Coldrake were less forthcoming than DraftKings CEO Jason Robins was a few weeks ago during his company’s earnings call. For example, Robins said DraftKings—which has faced similar stock struggles to Flutter—is “moving with urgency” in prediction markets. He forecasted “hundreds of millions in annual revenue for DraftKings Predictions in the years ahead,” and called the industry “the most exciting new growth opportunity we have seen since PASPA was struck down in 2018,” referring to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed states to begin legalizing, and regulating, sports betting. 

Flutter characterizes the opportunity as “significant” and “incremental,” and declined to offer specifics about potential future revenue related to its prediction-market platform, although the company does admit it will spend what it needs to in order to ensure it ends up being one of the top players. Coldrake said the company spent “slightly less than” the $45 million it projected spending on prediction markets when it discussed third-quarter earnings.

Jackson said he believes the rise of prediction markets will “help hasten regulation of online sports betting” in states that have yet to legalize the practice.

In terms of full-year guidance for 2026, Flutter projects revenue of $18.4 billion and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of $2.97 billion, which represents respective year-over-year growth of 12% and 4%, but is lower than Wall Street projections.